(NaturalNews) As the flood of illegal immigrants continues across the nation's southwestern border, federal agents charged with securing our boundary with Mexico have become increasingly inundated, and some have begun to warn that the situation is becoming dire for a number of reasons.

Border Patrol agent and Laredo (Texas) Border Patrol Union spokesman Hector Garza told Breitbart News Sunday that the current chaos along the border is more than a burgeoning humanitarian crisis; it is a "big time border security crisis."

"Right now, we have a lot of drugs and criminals coming across the border undetected," Garza said. Further, he asserted that those criminals are going to start showing up soon in cities across the nation.

"New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, they'll be all over," he said.

'Child care and juvenile counseling'

Stephen K. Bannon, the program's host and Breitbart News executive chairman, asked the 14-year Border Patrol veteran if additional duties being asked of agents -- such as babysitting the youngest migrants -- are harming national security.

"Are you saying that because the brave men and women of the Border Patrol are beingoverwhelmed and taken off their post to attend to the children and teen agers [sic], who are coming across the border, that the bad guys, the drug runners, the cartels, the criminals, are able to slip in?" Bannon asked.

"That is correct, sir," Garza responded.

Some analysts have noted that the drug cartels are sort of diversifying their criminal portfolios as U.S. marijuana laws become more relaxed; in place of smuggling pot, cartels are turning to even harder drugs, as well as human trafficking.

Judicial Watch, a legal watchdog group, noted in a June 11 report:

This is the front-line federal agency responsible for preventing terrorists and weapons of mass destruction from entering the United States. ...

Babysitting kids has never been one of its duties, but the country is in a crisis because it's been bombarded with thousands of illegal immigrant youths from Central America. ...

Now the administration is desperately searching for babysitters and has distributed a memo, obtained exclusively by JW, recruiting agents with "child care or juvenile teaching and/or counseling" experience to work at the various shelters that are housing the illegal alien minors.

Garza told Breitbart News Sunday that Border Patrol agents are some of the most highly trained federal officers and are part of one the government's most professional forces. But because they are increasingly being reassigned to processing duties and to physically provide care for the masses crossing the border, that leaves "essentially very few agents who actually do the patrolling of the border."

"That's why we suffer, that's how the criminals and drug runners can take advantage of the situation," he said, estimating that nearly three-quarters of the 21,000-person agency is not currently on border patrol duty.

Garza said that after many of the unaccompanied children are processed, they are summarily released to family members currently living in the U.S., and that many of those families are also in the country illegally.

'Administration is not covering our backs'

In addition, he added, the agency that actually sanctions handing over the illegal immigrant children to family members living in the U.S. illegally is the Department of Health and Human Services and agency officials are making no effort to find out if family members are living legally inside the country.

As Breitbart News reported:

Similar to a traffic ticket, when the illegal entrants are processed they are given a summons to appear in court within twenty days. Astoundingly, according to Garza, statistics show that more than 95% of the illegal aliens never show up in court and "they disappear into our community and our society." Garza stated that if there are no consequences for a crime that is committed, then that crime is going to be continually repeated.

The U.S.-Mexico border was supposed to have been essentially walled off by now; Congress voted in 2006 to build a fence along the entire 1,200-plus-mile border, and construction began during the Bush administration. But subsequent congresses have removed funding for the effort.

During the interview, Garza went on to say that the people of America are generally supportive of Border Patrol agents. But he said the men and women of the Border Patrol do not think that the current administration is "covering their backs on the border."

* Required. Once you click submit, we will send you an email asking you to confirm your free registration.
Your privacy is assured and your information is kept confidential. You may unsubscribe at anytime.